It is ‘easier’ to control your people if quick death is the sentence for drug trafficking, severe caning for spitting on the sidewalk, cut off appendages related to the crime they committed, public stoning and/or executions etc etc etc
Well, Biblically, thieves had to pay back what they stole as via slavery. And many crimes were capital ones , normally executed by communal stoning (the offense was against all), versus antiseptic state execution. And what is missing in the Old Testament is much of any prison system.
When DC had its prison in Lorton VA - about 25 miles from DC, it was asked why they kept it there and the then Mayor, Marion Barry, said they had to keep it open as it may be the ONLY time some of the locals got to leave their neighborhood.
Believe it was also Barry that said the crime rate in DC wasn’t so bad if you threw out the murders....
Mayor for life huh....some of these lifetime pols makes one seriously believe there definitely should be a litmus test for the VOTERS especially when the only way term limits gets passed is for the people it affects to vote on it.....Nevah Hoppen Cholliee